"WHERE IS HE?" Nightreader roared in anguish, furiously whipping around the room as if expecting her brother to be hiding on one of the shelves. Torrent looked at the diamond's remains in shock, still standing on top of a hapless Jerboa. "WHERE IS MY BROTHER?"
She turned around to Torrent. "You knew what that was," she hissed. "What did it do? It was enchanted, wasn't it?"
Torrent tensed up. Was she accusing him of this? "This isn't my fault," he growled.
"No, it completely is your fault!" Nightreader roared. Jerboa looked away uncomfortably. "You could have just not tackled Jerboa, or not yelled at Stonemover, and this wouldn't have happened!"
"Jerboa might have been trying to use it to escape," Torrent snapped back. "She could have been lying this whole time, about who she was, just to save her scales."
"And so you scream at my brother? What did you think was going to happen there, that he was going to try and escape too? Well, congratulations, he's gone!"
Torrent whacked the end of his tail against the flooring. "You think I'm happy about this? Griffin's gone too. Do you think I wanted this to happen?"
Nightreader opened her jaws to respond with vitriol, but decided better of it. She took in a deep breath. "It doesn't matter," she muttered. "We just need get them back." She turned to Jerboa. "You said you knew something about the green diamond."
Jerboa sighed. "A SandWing gave it to me," she explained. "She came to me with a young SkyWing to tell me she was an animus, and asked me if I wanted to join her and her protégé. She was frustrated with the queens or something like that, and figured that because of the tales surrounding my mother and her dissent, I'd be willing to help her out. I didn't, of course; I've long decided that I would keep my magic out of affairs like that. Still, she gave me the diamond, and told me that if I changed my mind or was in a pinch, I could crush it and it would take me to her." Jerboa flicked her tail across the ground. "Never heard more of her after that. Figured she'd gotten caught and executed, or maybe crossed the wrong animus's path. Or maybe just given up."
Another SandWing animus? Torrent wondered. The only female SandWing animus he'd met other than Jerboa was Goanna, who seemed a bit young. Anyways, if the green diamonds just teleported them to this animus, it would have been absolutely useless for Goanna to use it.
"I've seen other animuses use them before," Torrent explained to Nightreader. "I'm pretty sure they're teleportation devices."
"Yes, I got that," Nightreader snorted. She glanced down at the dust which remained from when the diamond had been crushed. "You're the one with the animus-locating map. Where could this SandWing be?"
"Not on it," Torrent muttered. "I've looked for other animuses after they've used similar objects, but there's nothing. They might be hiding from it somehow. Griffin had been the one holding it anyways, so it's not like it's much use. For all we know, the animus who enchanted it could be dead and buried."
Nightreader paled a bit at that prospect. If they were teleported to the buried body of a dead animus, Stonemover could have suffocated by now. Torrent had a similar thought. Did Griffin need to breath? He wasn't sure, he thought Orca had done something to change that, but it was so long ago, he wasn't sure if it was just letting Griffin breath water, or not needing him to breath at all. Maybe the SandWing had been given a water grave?
"I don't think so," Nightreader replied, her voice shaking, as if she was unsure of herself. "You said they disappeared off the map completely, right? If you're right, then you would have seen the animuses spots before they suffocated."
Torrent nodded a little, feeling a slight sigh of relief. So, maybe Griffin was fine. Hopefully.
"We could find another animus," Nightreader suggested. "Maybe there are more green diamonds. We could use one ourselves."
Torrent shook his head. "I don't think so. Stonemover and Jerboa were the last ones I was looking for. Maybe an animus I killed had one." If he had seen one in Magma's hoard, he would have disenchanted it. He remembered that Gila had tried to use one, but that was most likely the same one Goanna had. Maybe if they went to the ruins of Adobe's tower . . . but it would take years to clear away all the rubble, if it hadn't been ransacked already. Who else could've had one? Sunscorcher?
"Do you have any ideas?" Nightreader asked Jerboa.
The SandWing shook her head. "I'm sorry," she answered softly. "I don't know anything else. But, er, if you're planning to go somewhere else, I'd still like my request to be fulfilled. It might seem silly for someone as old as I am, but I'm getting a little impatient." She chuckled a little.
Request? Torrent wondered. "Oh, right," he muttered. The SandWing wanted him to remove her immortality enchantment. "Any last . . . preparations?" he asked awkwardly.
Jerboa shook her head, and smiled anxiously. "You're the only dragons I've talked to for quite a while, and any friends I've had have passed on by now. I suspect I'll have some time after you remove it, regardless."
"Fine," Torrent muttered. Something felt weird about this. Was it a trick? The SeaWing lifted up his curved dagger, and walked up to the SandWing. He moved the tip to a point between her horns, on one side of her fin. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Jerboa answered, almost in a demanding tone.
Torrent touched his claw to the emerald. For a moment, it didn't seem like anything had happened. He squinted at Jerboa. Was she getting older? He couldn't tell. "That's it."
Jerboa nodded, and backed away from Torrent. She placed her claws around one of the unspilled cups of agave wine, and took a sip. "The two of you should go. Save your friends. Would you like more wine for your journey?"
"We're good," Nightreader quickly replied. "Torrent had too much as it is."
Torrent glared, but didn't protest. He looked back towards Jerboa as Nightreader shoved him towards the exit. Was he really just going to leave her here, peacefully? This hadn't been what he intended, but at the moment, Griffin's fate and whatever SandWing animus took him seemed far more important than Jerboa.
"We need to go after them," Torrent muttered as Nightreader pushed him through the exit.
"And where do we go?" Nightreader asked with a snort. "We don't have any leads. They could have been teleported anywhere in Pyrrhia by now. Or not in Pyrrhia. We can't go somewhere we don't even know about."
Torrent paused for a moment. "No, but Griffin has a friend who might be able to help. An IceWing in the Talons of Peace leadership who might know something. Fracture."
The SeaWing put a paw over his eyes as the sun glimmered, blinding him.
"Good luck!" Jerboa called after the two. She said something else, but the words didn't seem to register in Torrent's ears.
"What?" Torrent asked, looking behind him. He stared into the empty house. Where Jerboa had been just a moment before, sunlight now only glinted off dust, falling slowly through the air.
"She apologized for something," Nightreader replied. "Something about wax."
"Huh," Torrent frowned. He shook his head. "No clue. It's probably not important."